On the other side of the barbed wire

Human rights defenders note a deterioration in the situation regarding the provision of the elementary rights of prisoners and a limitation of public control over the criminal-executive service – as a result, there is an increase in the frequency of torture and a sharp rise in the mortality rate in prisons

As evidenced by the study ‘Observance of the Rights of Prisoners in Ukraine-2010’, conducted by the public organisation ‘Donetsk Memorial’ with the participation of experts from the Penitentiary Society of Ukraine for the period 2010 – first half of 2011, the conditions of detention of prisoners in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Department for Execution of Sentences compared to the period 2005–2010 have significantly deteriorated. In particular, according to sociological surveys conducted by human rights organisations, in 2010, compared to 2009, the number of people who experienced violence in the police increased by almost a third (from 604,000 to 780,000–790,000), and deaths in Ministry of Internal Affairs institutions – by more than twice (from 23 to 51 people). The corresponding indicators clearly correlate with the weakening of public control over detention conditions.

A STEP FORWARD, TWO BACK?

In 2005–2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs created public councils for the observance of human rights in its structure and regional departments, as well as mobile groups for monitoring temporary detention centres, rooms for detainees (more commonly known among the people as ‘monkey cages’), and reception-distributor centres for children.

Including representatives of the public, these groups, as human rights defenders testify, showed considerable activity. For example, over 2006–2009, they carried out over 900 (including 306 in 2009) visits to Ministry of Internal Affairs special institutions. Each of them was accompanied by an inspection of the conditions of prisoner detention and decisions on conducting internal investigations in the event that violations were detected. 17 temporary detention centres that neglected necessary standards were liquidated.



An important role in countering abuses in Ministry of Internal Affairs institutions was also played by the Office for Monitoring the Observance of Human Rights in the Activities of Internal Affairs Bodies, created in January 2008 within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs apparatus.

But with the change of power in 2010, the situation changed radically and sharply. One of the first steps of Anatolii Mohyliov as Minister of Internal Affairs was the initiative to liquidate the aforementioned Ministry of Internal Affairs office. During the first three months of his management of the ministry (March – May), according to human rights defenders, it was possible to conduct only 12 visits of mobile public groups to Ministry of Internal Affairs special institutions.

The conditions of prisoner detention in pre-trial detention centres (SIZO) also deteriorated. While in 2010, 19,950 applications were transferred from Ukraine to the European Court of Human Rights, in 2011 it was already 23,750. Moreover, as the report of the Government Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights for 2010 shows, a significant part of the appeals consists of complaints about violations of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms during detention, starting from restrictions on prisoners’ correspondence and ending with torture in SIZO and refusal to provide medical assistance.

The situation with medical services on the other side of the barbed wire, according to human rights defenders, is especially critical. In the aforementioned study, an interesting fact is presented: in the Lukianivske SIZO, for 3,000 prisoners, there are only 42 beds in the medical unit. In many SIZO, the situation is even worse. There is information that only those who have ‘grev’, that is, material and financial assistance from the outside, can afford to stay in the medical unit. The system is unable to provide effective treatment to all suspects. As a result – a sharp increase in mortality in correctional institutions. If in 2009, 761 people died, in 2010 – 808, then in only half of 2011, the figure reached 601 prisoners. Failure to provide medical assistance can also be qualified as torture against suspects and convicts.

CONTRARY TO THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE

According to Art. 11 of the Law ‘On Pre-trial Detention’, the space norm in a SIZO cell for one detained person cannot be less than 2.5 m², and for a pregnant woman or one who has a child with her – 4.5 m² (in colonies – it is slightly higher: before the completion of his presidential term, Viktor Yushchenko signed a law which increased it from 3 to 4 m²). According to UN recommendation standards, the norm of detention during pre-trial investigation should be at least 4 m². However, even the provision of the law on 2.5 m² in a SIZO per person is often not fulfilled, due to overcrowding in certain regions. Thus, in Kyiv, with a capacity of 2,850 places, 1,058 more prisoners (i.e., 37%) are held in the SIZO; in the Donetsk SIZO with 1,970 places, 2,898 people are actually present.

But the problem is not only the lack of a proper number of ‘places’. Detention in a SIZO, in the practice of law enforcement officers, is not so much a preventive measure as a method of pressure, human rights defenders state. It is very convenient for an investigator to keep a suspect in a SIZO, he is always ‘at hand’, from a person who is in a ‘pressure cell’ (pres-khata), it is significantly easier to ‘beat out’ testimony, to ‘hang’ a case on them. The figures of those released from SIZO are indicative: in 2010, 14,412 people were released to freedom (22.3%), of which 5,942 were because courts issued sentences not involving deprivation of liberty, 2,540 because the preventive measure was changed to a milder one. In fact, almost 8,500 could have been not in prisons, but on a written undertaking not to leave. This would have saved expenses on the maintenance of SIZO staff, on the implementation of compensatory decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, and, ultimately, would have been significantly more humane towards citizens whom the court had not yet found guilty. Especially since, as of today, there is already world practice of using the latest technologies for controlling the movement of suspects (so-called bracelets).

In SIZO, they also actively try to ‘re-educate’ ‘political’ ones. Today, we can speak of more than 20 political prisoners of the new Ukraine, who were seriously pressured in pre-trial detention centres. For example, the high-profile case involving the arrest of Hanna Sinkova, who, in protest against the inappropriate use of budget funds, fried eggs on the Eternal Flame. One can evaluate such an act differently (as, incidentally, such a form of honouring the memory of the fallen), but the fact that a 19-year-old girl from an educated family was arrested, and spent several months in SIZO, goes beyond common sense. Especially since Sinkova had not previously been held criminally liable and used to attend interrogations. At the same time, SIZO can be avoided, even if a person is suspected of murder. But to do this, one needs to be close to power. This is evidenced, for example, by the story of Serhii Demishkan, the son of the ‘Regionals’ member Volodymyr Demishkan, until recently the head of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration, and today the head of Ukravtodor. According to media information, together with accomplices in 2007, he kidnapped the general director of the aviation transport company Vasyl Kryvozub, who was then drowned in the Dnipro. Despite this, after the ‘Blue-and-Whites’ came to power, in 2010 Serhii Demishkan was released on an undertaking not to leave.

Perhaps the biggest problem of the Ukrainian penitentiary system, human rights defenders say, is that it does not work on the prevention of criminal recidivism. Today, 51.9% of Ukrainian prisoners (about 56.1 thousand people) have previously served sentences. In 2010, the situation worsened even more; 55% of those convicted in 2010 were individuals who already had a criminal record. But the state’s priorities are well illustrated by a line in the budget: for the training of labour personnel in professional-technical centres for social adaptation at institutions for the execution of sentences, only 2.53 million UAH was allocated in the State Budget for 2011, which is critically small.

Human rights defenders signal extremely alarming trends in the personnel provision of penitentiary institutions, and its low qualification level. And this is logical: the staff turnover rate in the execution of sentences system is about 30%, which is a very high indicator for a service that requires specialists with psychological training and many years of work experience.

Punitive measures will be applied to convicts who protest and complain. ‘Donetsk Memorial’ notes a significant level of corruption that exists among prison staff, ‘in particular, when applying for parole.’ Cases of exposing bribe-takers have become more frequent, but unfortunately, this does not affect the general level of corruption among staff.

WHAT TO DO?

Today, it is obvious that Ukraine needs to reform the penitentiary system. First of all, the regulatory framework for conducting pre-trial investigations and holding suspects in custody must be reviewed. Clear imperative criteria must be established that allow for determining the measure of restraint for a suspect. In addition, ideas regarding the use of electronic bracelets, microchips, and other latest technologies for tracking the whereabouts of suspects need immediate implementation. Such innovations are in the draft of the new Criminal Procedure Code, but it would be more logical not to wait for a new code, but to introduce amendments to the old one now. On the one hand, according to rough estimates, this will save the state budget at least 1 million UAH per day, on the other – thousands of suspects will avoid ‘beating out’ testimony and torture. Ultimately, this will allow ensuring the internationally recommended 4 m² per suspect in correctional institutions. Another direction of reform should be cardinal changes in the personnel provision of penitentiary institutions. In particular, this concerns changing approaches to the selection and motivation of SIZO and correctional colony staff. Instead of creating an army of 35-year-old pensioners, and this is the main incentive for those who go to work in the penitentiary system, it is significantly more effective to create a career system of service in correctional institutions with a corresponding social package, salary, etc.

For those who return to freedom, it is necessary to create conditions so that they socialise as much as possible. For this, in particular, prisoners should be given the opportunity to earn real money in places of deprivation of liberty; when necessary, to provide a labour profession in places of detention (for example, in one of the women’s colonies in Russia, prisoners write computer programs and leave as specialists); provide legal assistance to those returning to freedom (registration at the place of residence, judicial appeals regarding deprivation of property, etc.).

And of course, the strengthening of public control is necessary, as the experience of 2005–2009 confirmed that specialised human rights organisations demonstrate very high effectiveness in reducing the scales of [misconduct].

At present, however, everything is happening in reverse, and some officials are parasitising on the ‘reform’ of the penitentiary system. The Accounting Chamber, having conducted an audit of the use of budget funds under the State Programme for Improving Conditions of Detention of Convicts and Persons Held in Custody, revealed the inefficiency of spending money for 2006–2010 in the amount of 130 million UAH. The public organisation ‘Donetsk Memorial’ notes that out of 23 recommendations that were conveyed a year ago to state institutions regarding the activities of institutions for the execution of sentences, at least partially only eight are being fulfilled. There are no significant positive changes either in the sphere of adopting departmental documents or at the level of general legislation. The rights of convicts continue to be violated both at the level of general conditions of detention and in the treatment of staff, who demand absolute obedience from those deprived of liberty.

CRIMINAL TRENDS

– the number of prisoners in the country has been growing for the third year in a row: currently, there are 345 people behind bars per 100,000 of the population

– the number of life-sentenced prisoners is increasing: as of 1 July last year, there were 1,727 people, of whom 20 were women

– the application of a preventive measure – taking into custody – remains unjustifiably widespread in Ukraine

– the number of tuberculosis patients in criminal-correctional institutions is gradually decreasing, however, the number of HIV-infected is constantly growing

– mortality in the first half of 2011 increased by 46%, the number of suicides – by more than 20%